Pakistani army says it shot down Indian drone near Kashmir border

The file photo released by the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Public Relations shows an Indian drone downed by Pakistani armed forces.

The Pakistani military has shot down an Indian "spy drone" in the disputed Kashmir region shortly after four Pakistani children were killed by Indian mortar fire.

The Indian drone had crossed 60 meters over the Line of Control (LoC) into Pakistan when it was shot down and captured by Pakistani troops, Pakistan’s army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa said on Saturday.

Pakistan’s army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa (Photo by AFP)

"Indian Quad Copter has been shot down by Pakistani troops at 1645, fell in Pak territory& taken over by Pak troops," he said in a message posted on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the death toll from a mortar shelling by Indian forces in a village along the LoC rose from three to four after another child died of injuries, officials said.

"Death toll from today's firing by Indian troops has reached four," Raja Arif Mahmood, a local administration official in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, told media. The incident was confirmed by local police.

Earlier in the day, the Pakistani military said its troops had fired retaliatory shots into India.

The latest exchange of fire comes just a day after Pakistan's navy claimed it had detected and stopped an Indian submarine from entering its territorial waters in the Arabian Sea.

The decades-long territorial dispute between the two nuclear countries has intensified in recent months.

Peace talks between the two neighbors collapsed in 2008 following terrorist attacks in Mumbai.